


Phantom Pains

by calliecaddie



Series: A Crumbling Universe [5]
Category: Iron Fist (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:54:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23770402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliecaddie/pseuds/calliecaddie
Summary: Misty Knight has been fighting the good fight long after the Vanishing took her partner away from her. But even in a world half gone, there are some things you just can't do alone.
Relationships: Misty Knight/Danny Rand
Series: A Crumbling Universe [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705459
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Phantom Pains

Misty Knight thought losing a limb would be the worst thing to happen to her, and she even got over that. Putting her new mechanical arm on for work every morning became second nature to her, and she even taught herself how to use it effectively in the field. Since the day she got it, it had slowly but surely become a real part of her.

But so had Colleen Wing. And no piece of technology in the world would’ve been enough to replace her after she was erased. She was a vigilante, but she was her partner too. She had her back during arrests that entire police forces might have had trouble handling. Misty stayed clamped to her perps with her vice-like grip while Colleen brandished the legendary Iron Fist in her sword for crowd control.

Colleen was gone now, unceremoniously lost to the wind along with countless others. Meanwhile, criminals still roamed the streets and continued to wreak havoc on a society that was as incomplete as her. Misty was pissed, and the only thing that could distract her was work.

Night after night, Misty mowed through rapists, robbers, and murderers that still populated the city. The fact that even an all-powerful alien didn’t deem any of the scum she took care of worthy of being erased made Colleen’s absence that much more aggravating. Tonight was no different for her, cleaning up what the forces that be couldn’t.

She paced down a seedy sidewalk, the streets coated with rainfall. 

“This is Detective Misty Knight,” she announced through her comm, never breaking her stride. “I’m coming up on the last known location Mark Haley. Permission to nail him now, sir.”

“That’s a negative,” her presiding chief transmitted back. “Still haven’t gathered enough manpower for a raid that big.”

“With all due respect, sir, my asking permission was strictly obligatory. Haley’s cocaine ring has still shown signs of activity after all this time.”

“And we’ll take care of him, but you can’t go in there alone!”

Misty flexed her mechanical fingers on one hand and drew her gun with the other. “What few sources I still have tell me that he’s making the rounds on his payroll before he skips town and tonight’s his last stop. If we don’t get him now, then we lose him for good!”

“Knight, I know you’re upset. But I’m telling you, we can’t spare what few officers we have left when we’re trying to maintain order in the streets. You gotta let this one go."

"But the Vanishing didn’t." Misty cocked her gun deliberately so that the chief would hear it on his end. "He already got off the hook once, and I’ll be damned if it’s gonna happen again. Knight out."

Misty didn’t let him finish before she cut off her frequency. She stood by the backdoor to a seemingly-abandoned warehouse, her hands gripping her firearm intently. Instinctively, she looked to her left, waiting for only a moment to get the okay from Colleen to bust in. 

Seeing no one beside her made her chuckle wryly. She drew in a sharp breath, trying to manage her turbulent emotions.

“Grief into anger,” she recited to herself, a mantra that Colleen had taught her once. “Anger into focus… focus into strength. Grief into anger. Anger into… anger into...”

Misty looked one more time at the empty space next to her, still devoid of her partner.

“Screw it.” She clenched her robotic hand and ripped the locked door open, a small group of armed men standing on guard around a cocaine lab. “Freeze! NYPD! You’re under arrest!” 

Misty tried not to seem overeager as two of the men raised their guns at her. She shot the first two in the shoulders before they could even pull their triggers. As the others started to unload, she kicked down a table and ducked for cover, spilling blocks of cocaine on the ground. Bullets struck the bags before the table, kicking up powdery clouds into the air.

Misty peeked up and tried to keep shooting. Through the smoke, she heard armed goons shouting in pain as her bullets hit. She ducked one more time, steadying her breath and waiting. As soon as the gunfire settled and she heard sounds of reloading, she got up from her cover.

She charged one shooter who was still fumbling with a clip and swung her mechanical arm in a wide arc. He was swept onto the ground in an instant. Another henchman who abandoned his gun began to throw a punch, but she blocked it with the same arm. As he reeled back from the shock, Misty knocked him out with a metallic backhand. 

Misty got lucky as another one reloaded his pistol. The bullets clanged with the metal on her arm as she inched forward. Between gunshots, she swung her arm around again and knocked him off his feet. A swift punch to his head put him out. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Misty saw Mark Haley trying to make a break for it through the backdoor. She gripped her gun intently and shot at his feet. 

“Don’t move,” she yelled. As he stumbled to a halt and put his hands up, Misty stepped a bit closer to him, her gun trained on his head. “Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time. I said you’re under--”

She was cut off by the sounds of guns cocking behind her. She didn’t bother to turn around to see how much trouble she was in. Misty pursed her lips, feeling gun barrels behind her boring into her flesh even from afar. Haley chuckled smugly as he turned to her, still standing in place as Misty held him at gunpoint.

“Why the hell are you trying to arrest me?” Haley mocked, trying to contain his laughter. “Look around you! Ain’t no rules in a world that’s half gone!”

“I don’t believe that,” Misty growled, her aim still steady. “I’m taking you in tonight if it’s the last goddamn thing I do!”

Haley scoffed at the notion, flashing a smug look at Misty and the armed henchmen behind her. He confidently drew his own gun and pointed it at her. “You heard the lady,” he said to his henchmen. 

Misty tried to remain still as she heard the gunmen shuffle around out of her peripheral. She’d failed to count her blessings up until this point. She might have been quick enough to catch one or two perps after all this time, but she got cocky. She underestimated how many criminals would be left behind from the Vanishing. 

“It’s not fair,” she thought to herself. She tried to imagine all the good one might have done with infinite power instead of erasing half of civilization in the blink of an eye, and the evil they could’ve gotten rid of. She figured whoever might have done it took the easy way out. Misty Knight worked her entire career trying to bring justice to her city, but someone decided to take over and clean house. And they couldn’t even be bothered to do a good job of it. 

Detective Knight closed her eyes, letting her entire life flash by. She’d spent this whole time trying to fill in the space Colleen left behind. Guns at her back normally wouldn’t have been a problem with the immortal Iron Fist on her six. Misty’s anger was being fired off in all different directions; was she angry for being too reliant on Colleen? For the whims of fate taking her away? For being too proud to know that taking down a drug lord by herself was a bad idea?

She flexed her fingers over the trigger. Misty was tired of letting her anger guide her. For once, perhaps for the last time, she decided to focus again like Colleen taught her. There was no easy way out of this one. But her next shot was going to count. 

_Grief into anger. Anger into focus. Focus into strength._

She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the recoil. The second between pulling the trigger and the bang of her gun seemed to last an eternity.

As the bullet left the chamber, the room was filled with a deafening shatter of glass. Shards of it began to rain along with the water from above, drawing everyone’s attention up as they moved out of the way. Haley collapsed as Misty’s bullet struck his leg.

A hooded shadow began to descend from the roof. The gunmen instinctively shot upwards, but the shadow responded with shots of its own. Bullets like fireflies zipped unnaturally to weave into the path of the others. Metal began to clash in the air, sending a shower of sparks and gunpowder into the warehouse as the shadow landed. 

As Haley and his gunmen scrambled to reload, the shadow went back to back with Misty. Keeping her eyes trained on her target the whole time, she simply smiled as she tried to retain her composure. “How was Japan then?” she said almost casually.

The hooded shadow holstered his guns and removed his hood. Danny Rand gave a knowing smirk to his old friend as he clenched his glowing fists. “Eye-opening. For a while, at least.”

“And Ward?”

“He was with me,” he began, though he swallowed some pain as he dug up a bitter memory. “Then he wasn’t. Tell me Colleen’s okay.”

She spoke with a calmness that surprised even her. “One crisis at a time, Danny.”

Danny winced at the realization, but tried to push it to the back of his mind. He immediately summoned up a mantra that Colleen had taught him once. _Grief into anger. Anger into focus. Focus into strength._

For a moment, Misty looked back to her old friend. He looked tired and confused, as he often did. But she leaned further into him, trying to help him cope in the moment. “Been flying solo for a little while now, haven’t you?” she remarked. “Don’t worry. I got your back.”

After a couple of painful breaths, Danny nodded confidently. “I guess we’ll catch up later then.”

In recent years, he tried his best not to shoulder so much burden on his own, so he felt a comforting familiarity in having someone watch over his blindspot. Misty, on the other hand, was grateful that whatever dragon Danny liked to ramble on about gave her a second chance.

As Haley and his henchmen moved to surround Misty and Danny, she held her metal arm back, fingers clenched tightly. She felt the hand of the immortal Iron Fist bump her own.

Then they charged.

**Author's Note:**

> This is so far the last I have in this series. Punisher is still very much in the concepting phase as I've yet to watch season 2 and don't really remember the characters too well. Runaways' ensemble cast is way too big for me to make anything organic out of it and I'm pretty sure there's a timeskip in the finale where they likely don't concern themselves with the Snap in the first place. Not being caught up aside, Agents of SHIELD didn't go anywhere near the Snap in their most recent season, so no sense in trying to make something canon-compliant after the fact. Inhumans is really really bad, so let's just say they all got dusted.
> 
> I do, however, have a few parts written for post-Endgame follow-ups that I'll post soon. I'll likely return to this one of these days, but it's what I have so far and I hope you like.


End file.
